Elsewhere

Categories

Alex got very sick after joining his new team at work. We decided to get some tea from Teavana. In the cup, it was a blend of jade citrus mint green tea and silver needle white tea, which was light and refreshing. The cookies were McVite’s dark chocolate digestive. They weren’t too sweet but crunchy.

Cookies and Tea

A relaxing song – Amnesia by 5 Seconds of Summer paired well with this meal.

Today, Alex and I had our semi-annual dental checkup. On the way back, we stopped by the Short Hills Mall to check out the iPhone 6 and 6 plus in the Apple store. I thought that I made a good choice to preorder the 6+. Alex, on the other hand, preferred the 6.

There was a Cheesecake Factory in the mall, which opened not too long ago. Alex had the spicy chipotle chicken sandwich, which was crispy, tender but not spicy. I had the everything pizza with pepperoni, sausage, peppers, onions, mushrooms, mozzarella and tomato sauce. This was my first thin crust pizza after Chicago trip. I missed it so much! For dessert, we shared the Original, which was very similar to Eileen’s cheesecake, fluffy and light, even though I wasn’t a big fan of the sour cream on top.

Today, I had a pasta craving. There’s a not bad Italian place across street from work – Pranzo. I always got the small spaghetti and meatballs with vegetables and garlic bread ($6.5). It filled me up. The meatballs were very soft and worked very well with the tomato sauce. The garlic bread was a must have but make sure that you chew a gum afterwards.

Alex was able to pick up some desserts from Carlo’s Bakery in Hoboken today. Normally, there was a huge long time in front of the shop. I was surprised by the choices that Alex made – mini strawberry cheesecake with chocolate mousse, vanilla cupcake, peanut butter cupcake, and caramel cupcake. I thought they were all pretty sweet. The cheesecake was not creamy (I guess it was Italian style?). This place was totally overrated. However, they were still satisfied my sweets craving.

Carlo’s Bakery

Even though the desserts weren’t up to my standard, I was still pretty happy. Happy by Pharrell Williams paired well with the desserts.

This was my first time to have lunch with bunch of girls for lunch. It was so fun! We went to this Japanese place, which was not far from work, called Haru. The place was huge with two floors. I got the sushi special with 7 pieces of assorted sushi and 1 tuna roll. The fish was very fresh.

Can’t believe that we have been to two Momofuku restaurants on the same day. Booker and Dax was a bar, which located behind the ssäm bar. We were there right before they were opened, which was not crowded at all. We sat by the bar, which allowed us to interact with the bartender easily. Turned out, they experimented with new techniques and ingredients for making drinks, just like how they were making food. I got a shaved ice drink – BDX Marg with mezcal, yellow chartreuse, cointreau, and lime juice. The tool that they used to shave the ice was very unique. Alex got a classic cocktail – Manhattan, which was prepared ahead of time (It seemed a very good idea for hosting a cocktail party). We also got their famous pork buns.

After visiting Momofuku Ko, we thought to meet up with a friend of ours for some desserts and drinks. Veniero’s Pastry Shop was nearby and we love their desserts. Alex and I shared millefoligie, which light, delicate, pastry filled with bavarian cream and topped
with powdered sugar, and New York Style cheesecake. We got three chocolate desserts for our friend, who was a chocolate fan. We had desserts at Union Square park. There was a squirrel sitting behind us.

Veniero’s Italian Bakery

I think that I had enough of Veniero’s cheesecakes for a while. Love Runs Out by OneRepublic suited well with this meal.

To celebrate Alex’s new position, we decided to go to Momofuku Ko – a two Michelin star restaurant in NYC. It was very hard to make the reservation. You had to log onto their website at a certain time and to be lucky. This place was very tiny with 12 seats at the bar. They served 6 customers at the same time. It costed $175 per person before tax for a 16-course meal. Everything was prepared in front of you. Chefs were extremely knowledgable and friendly. The menu items changed pretty much for every meal. Today, it seemed having a cucumber theme.

Alex has always been a big fan of Tom Petty. I also liked his songs a lot. We were able to go to his concert in Madison Square Garden today. It was awesome. This was my first concert at MSG. This place was massive with lots of seats.

Prior to the concert, we got some quick bites from Tous Les Jours – a French and Asian bakery in K-Town. We had curry croquette donut (always our favorite), sausage foliage bread, ham pastry and sweet rice donut. Everything was very tasty and filling.

Tous Les Jours

I Won’t Back Down by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers was one of the songs from the concert, which paired well with this quick meal.

After having a pasta lunch, Alex and I were still in the lazy mode. We decided to fry up some of the Gardenburger® Malibu Burger Organic Vegan. It was very easy to prepare by frying in the pan for 7 minutes. I had it without the buns and toppings. Instead, I had 5 sauces: ketchup, curry ketchup, garlic dressing, sriracha and Japanese spicy sauce. I liked curry ketchup the most with the burger.